A First Look at the Literacy of America's Adults in the 21st Century. NCES 2006-470

Kutner, Mark; Greenberg, Elizabeth; Baer, Justin

National Center for Education Statistics

The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) measures the English literacy of America's adults (people age 16 and older living in households or prisons). The average quantitative literacy scores of adults increased 8 points between 1992 and 2003, though average prose and document literacy did not differ significantly from 1992 (figure 1). The literacy tasks in the assessment were drawn from actual texts and documents, which were either used in their original format or reproduced in the assessment booklets. Each question appeared before the materials needed to answer it, thus encouraging respondents to read with purpose. Respondents were asked to complete an assessment booklet that included seven literacy screening tasks (with questions asked in either English or Spanish but based upon written materials presented in English only) common to all booklets, followed by three blocks of tasks. The assessment also included a background questionnaire that was used to collect data about the relationship between literacy and various demographic and background characteristics.